The freeze on income tax thresholds is creating a series of tax cliff edge situations for middle income earners according to analysts. The Chancellor has made clear that the income tax thresholds will not change for a ‘few years’ meaning thousands of people are finding themselves paying more tax as their pay increases move them into the next bracket or create effective tax rates through loss of other income streams.
News that HMRC has pulled in almost £650m due to complex inheritance gifting rules in the past three years, has once again highlighted the need for careful estate planning by families. Whilst the overall tax receipts from Inheritance Tax (IHT) between April 2022 and February 2023 were £6.4 billion, the focus of this latest news is on the proportion collected as a result of gifts made by the deceased in the period leading up to their death.
When you split a business to avoid registering for VAT it is called disaggregation and HMRC can perceive this to be deliberate tax avoidance, which carries penalties and could see them treating all the individual businesses as a single entity and taxing them all equally. However, there are legitimate situations whereby disaggregation is acceptable and appropriate.
How on earth do you deliver an economy boosting budget when there’s no spare cash for headline grabbing giveaways, you have double digit inflation, you may or may not be heading into a recession, there’s war in Europe and the country is still struggling to recover from the impact of Brexit and the Covid pandemic? That was the uphill challenge facing Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, when he stood up on 15th March to deliver his Spring Budget.
Following the completion of the latest round of Self-Assessment, HMRC is reported to be looking into undeclared income from short term lettings that it believes should have been included on tax returns in January. Those believed not to have declared income will be sent ‘nudge’ letters.
Analysis by HMRC suggests that millions of investors will be hit hard by the planned reductions in the dividend allowance coming into effect in April 23 and April 24.
From 1st April 2023, the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage will rise by an average of nearly 10% across the board (9.94%), helping to support the lowest paid workers but potentially causing a further burden on the businesses employing them.
Reports from the hospitality sector have shown a significant increase in the number of pubs closing, amidst challenging circumstances. The research data is based on a year-on-year comparison of the number of insolvencies for pub firms and it shows a 180% increase in the last 12 months.
Our Spring 2023 tax year end newsletter can now be downloaded here.
Back in October 2022, we shared the news that PAYE payments can now be paid to HMRC via Direct Debit in a similar way to VAT payments. But recent reports suggest the system is enduring some teething problems which have resulted in firms receiving incorrect penalties for non or late payment or paying twice to try and avoid penalties.
It’s now three years since the onset of covid. Little did we know that the stay at home order of March 2020 would herald the biggest shakeup of working routines and practices since the industrial revolution. Not even the invention of the computer or the internet had the same scale of impact on where and how we work.
The recent annual trading announcements from BP and Shell have highlighted why ethical or ESG focused investing is becoming a harder choice for investors. Record annual profits from both organisations have led to a boost in their share values and greater dividends for shareholders. When you’re trying to pull together a mixed portfolio of investments, this kind of trading performance is hard to ignore, especially when other organisations with an ethical remit are beginning to struggle due to economic conditions.